The titular thief is a 14-year-old Magical Girl named Haneoka Meimi, daughter of a magician and a Kaitou-turned-housewife, who goes to a Catholic school. One of her classmates, and her Secret Keeper, is a trainee nun named Mimori Seira; on duty, she listens to the troubles of the people that visit her church. If someone's been the victim of larceny, Seira tells Meimi all the details, both from the testimony and from her own sneaking around. Meimi transforms into Saint Tail, uses a combination of her father's magic tricks and her mother's stealth, and steals the stuff back. Saint Tail is idolized as a hero by the girls at school, but the police have an obligation to catch her, even if all she's doing is returning things to their rightful owners. In comes Meimi's classmate, detective-in-training and on-off crush Asuka Jr., who becomes obsessed with catching Saint Tail.

Asuka begins to fall for both Meimi and Saint Tail, and Meimi becomes jealous of her own alter ego. A few other characters are introduced that have it in for Saint Tail, and Seira continues to remind her that even if she does have feelings for Asuka, she can't let her identity slip. Meanwhile, although Meimi's mother, who had far less altruistic motives than Meimi does, was never captured, her past as a phantom thief is catching up with her.

Canon Foreigner: Mayor Morinaka and Asuka sr.: while known to exist since the start in the manga, they first appear in the very first anime episode, and when they finally appear in the manga it's with their anime looks and characterization.

Catholic School Girls Rule: In spite of all characters going to a catholic school, the one hit by this is Seira, whose good looks have been remarked upon by complete strangers and has a love interest who knows she's a nun-in-training. Too bad that Seira is not only not interested (to the point she's oblivious about a rather romantic tradition of the school that even the transfer student knows), but completely Oblivious to Love...

Clark Kenting: Subverted. The only differences between Meimi and Saint Tail are the clothes and Saint Tail's ponytail, but Saint Tail takes care to keep people from seeing her face. Meimi and Saint Tail also act differently (to the point that Saint Tail started showing off after putting herself in a situation where Meimi had nearly fainted out of shyness), and Meimi doesn't show how good an athlete and magician she is to avoid suspicion (and the one time she slipped and accidentally showed her agility, Rina added it to the list of hints that Meimi could be Saint Tail).

Determinator: Asuka Jr doesn't give up on catching Saint Tail for pretty much the whole series no matter how many times he fails.

Embarrassing First Name: Rosemary's true name is Kabako Sendo. Why is it embarrassing? Well, Kabako can be translated as Miss Hippopotamus. For obvious reasons, calling her by name in public is her Berserk Button.

Generation Xerox: Religious-themed phantom thief runs from chief detective Asuka, who dedicates his life to unmasking her. Now are we talking about Eimi and Asuka Sr. or Meimi and Asuka Jr.? One big exception, though: Meimi steals from thieves and gives to the rightful owners, but Eimi stole from the rich and gave to herself.

The Ghost: Mayor Morinaka and especially Asuka sr. in the manga: Morinaka doesn't show up in person until the two-parter of chapters 18 and, three quarters through the storyline (and promptly disappears again), while Asuka sr. appears only in the final panel of the prequel chapter published after the end of the manga.

Huge Schoolgirl: Rina is easily the tallest girl in the class, and the second tallest student period (only Sawatari is slightly taller), and she's rather shocked, and flustered, when the very short Asuka jr. hits his grown spurt and becomes taller than her.

Important Hair Cut: At the end of the manga series, after the skip forward in time, it is revealed that Meimi cut her hair. Symbolically, it points out that she is no longer Saint Tail.

Karma Houdini: Rosemary kidnaps Asuka Jr., puts Meimi through hell, and threatens both of their lives. In the end, she simply walks away after seeing their love for one another and goes on to rob people in other towns.

Mysterious Parent: Mysterious to us; Meimi knew all along, and it's strongly hinted from the beginning.

Nuns Are Mikos: Tachikawa Megumi freely admits that she assumed things about nuns when creating Seira that are only true of miko.

Nun Too Holy: Seira has lied and violated the confessional secret multiple times, is in cahoot with a thief, and, in the manga, even committed one theft herself (the key of a confessional she 'reserved' for private talks with Meimi). True, she doesn't exactly like any of that (she justifies it as having to do it to redress wrongs, and even gave herself a What the Hell, Hero? in one occasion), but she still did, and even was the one to come up with the idea to send Meimi around as Saint Tail (and coined the name) to steal stolen things and give them back to their legitimate owners... And the Distant Finale implies she never stopped violating the confessional secret, only now she does it to point Asuka Jr. at the wrongs to redress.

Naughty Nun: Played with: Seira keeps her vow of chastity, but ends up as Sawatari's love interest (and, when she finally realizes his feelings, there are hints she may reciprocate them, even if she'll keep them strictly platonic), and her good looks are remarked multiple times, especially when wearing her nun garb.

Also, Seira: near the end of the manga Sawatari falls for her, yet she doesn't realize his feelings (which are just as evident as Rina's and Saint Tail for Asuka) until he makes her a barely-veiled declaration.

Secret Keeper: Asuka jr., in the end (Seira doesn't count because she's an accomplice).

In the anime, Eimi is implied to know that her daughter is Saint Tail, and actually covered her once.

Sure, Let's Go with That: The manga reveals Saint Tail got started this way: after what was supposed to be Saint Tail's only outing (and even before the name was coined) to recover a stolen key, the school journal published a bad picture of her taken by Asuka Jr. and dubbed her a Phantom Thief, and Seira, in her nun garb, told Meimi she would be one with the name of Saint Tail. Meimi, not thinking about it as a Mission from God yet, was less than amused.

Also his father Asuka Sr., who in his youth chased Meimi's mother when she was the phantom thief Lucifer and is shown being the one chasing Saint Tail before Asuka Jr. nearly catches her, getting the mayor to make him take over. He's still the one who arrests the crooks exposed by Saint Tail.

Where the Hell Is Springfield?: The setting is vaguely Japanese, with places like New Tokyo Airport being mentioned, and all the characters have Japanese names. However, the architecture that makes up the different settings varies between Japanese, Italian, French, German, and British (with Japanese architecture actually being the least common of the styles, and French and Italian being the most common), and famous locations from other countries often show up in the scenery. It doesn't help that the only other countries they mention are all fictional (besides America), implying this story occurs in a different world than our own—likely one in which Japan had far earlier and more extensive contact with Western culture.

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